A Note in the Shoe Locker
by vakiromii
Summary: The love confession of two equally awkward and misinformed baseball idiots. It all started when Sawamura tries out a new tactic. Awkwardness ensues.
1. Original

**A/N: What am I doing starting another fanfiction before even completing my previous one. I swear, I really don't know what was going on in my mind at 3:30am. Still, I hope you will enjoy it!**

* * *

Miyuki Kazuya is, as many would say, popular with the girls (well, and maybe a few guys too). Every day, he could expect to find confession letters in his locker, inside of his bag, on top his desk, or sometimes even taped on his back. Honestly, he didn't even care about those stupid floral letters anymore-they were all the same to him. It's just another confession.

Or so he tried tell himself as he glanced inside his shoe locker to find a single piece of folded paper on top of his shoes.

In a messy scrabble, the letter stated: "Meet me at the first baseball bleachers after school" And in tiny, almost nonexistent letters at the bottom, it stated: "please"

The brunette arched his brow in amusement and chuckled to himself.

Interesting.

It wouldn't hurt to stop by just to see who it was.

* * *

After school, Miyuki went to the bleachers just as the note has told and waited 10 minutes. 20 minutes. 30 minutes. Yes, he actually kept track of the time, but nobody showed up. There weren't a lot of people around. Usually, there would only be a crowd watching the baseball team during practice games, which are usually only during weekends.

Hmm, maybe they suddenly got sick or had something more important to do.

Miyuki decided to just wave it off and walked off toward practice. He still had a couple of minutes before practice starts, but if he didn't leave soon then he would definitely be late.

As he walked toward the changing room, Miyuki happened to glance to the side and saw Sawamura walking ahead of him. He smirked to himself and creeped up to the clueless boy, wrapping an arm around his neck.

"Sa-wa-mu-ra~" He whispered lowly into his ear.

"Gyah! M-Miyuki, what are you doing here?"

"Going to practice, obviously? And it's Miyuki-senpai, you idiot."

The shorter boy pouted his lips a little. "I'm not an idiot."

"Oh, really now?" Miyuki replied sarcastically.

Lately he found that he really enjoyed teasing his kohai. Sawamura would always make these pouty faces. It was kind of cute actually. Wait, what? Miyuki shook his head. What is wrong with him, thinking that Sawamura of all people was cute?

"Oi, what are you two idiots doing? Hurry up and get changed already. Practice is about to start." Jun said as he walked out of the changing room toward the field.

Miyuki realized that he still had his arm wrapped around his underclassman's neck and immediately let go of him.

But if he had paid more attention, maybe he could have noticed the small blush that had graced the pitcher's face.

* * *

The next day, Miyuki wasn't surprised to find another note of equal quality inside his shoe locker.

Still curious as to whose it was, he decided to go check it out again after school.

After school, Miyuki had to run late to the meeting place, but still not late enough for practice to start when his teacher asked him to do a favor after class. It was just a small delivery to the office, but he wondered if the person was already waiting by the bleachers. He hurriedly made his way to the meeting place, but to his disappointment, it was once again a no-show.

"Tsk, what the heck."

Maybe he was just too late and the person had something of more importance to do. But still, two meetings and two no-shows. He was starting to wonder if this was some sort of prank, but decided to just ignore it. This was all just for fun anyway.

Miyuki began to walk to the changing room when he saw a moving figure in his peripheral vision and quickly turned to see who it was.

Sawamura was jogging with a tire on his waist inside near the fenced area. He stared at the freshman for a little while. Maybe longer than necessary until he saw the others walking toward to the field. "Oi Sawamura, practice is going to start. Get your ass over here!" Someone yelled. Miyuki wiped the unconscious smile off of his face.

"Oh shit," he cursed. He was going to be late! The catcher ran off to the changing room to get ready for practice.

That day, Miyuki had to run a few extra laps around the field. Even though he had to run errands and stay late for classroom duties, the second-year knew that he had no excuses.

* * *

The next morning was a rough one. Miyuki did not get any sleep, having to stay up all night playing shogi with the team captain. Because of that, he had woken up late that morning. As he made his way toward the school building, he realized that he had forgotten his notes and ran back to the dorms to get them. As a result, he made it to class late and had to stay after school to do cleaning duties.

That's why, by the time he was finished and went to his shoe locker to get his outdoor shoes, he was already kind of irritated. Sitting neatly on top of his shoes was another piece of folded paper. Already late for practice, Miyuki just shoved the note in his pocket and decided that the person could wait. He had already waited for them for two days to show their face and had two no-shows. It wasn't wrong of him to make them wait this time around. And that was only if they would even show up.

After practice was over, Miyuki went to take a shower. As he was taking off his pants, he noticed a crumpled note. Realizing that it was the note from his shoe locker, he uncrumpled to see if it was the same message he had been receiving. Surprisingly, it was different this time. The note read: "Come to the bleachers. I have something for you." Hmm, curious.

After a terribly loud dinner and deciding that there was still some time before the senpais would go to his room, Miyuki decided to go take a look at the bleachers and get some light practice. Grabbing his bat and towel, he made his way to the fields, taking the long way so he could pass by the bleachers.

As he was jogging past the meeting spot, Miyuki noticed that there was a dark object on top of the front row of the bleachers. He made his way toward the object and opened it up. A lollipop. Inside the box wasanother note that read: "Hope this makes you feel better."

Miyuki smirked to himself. Maybe this note business wasn't so bad after all. Although he still wondered who this patron was.

* * *

The next day, Miyuki found yet another note in his shoe locker. He decided to go check out the place again.

As usual, the bleachers did not have much of a crowd around. Miyuki made his way to the bleachers, picked up the black box that was probably left for him, and sat down, looking behind him once in a while to see if there was anyone coming by. He unwrapped the candy and started sucking on it. After a few minutes of waiting, Miyuki searched the field if he could spot his ador-no, his kohai. Usually, Sawamura would be doing his daily tire-running already. But currently, there was no sign of any idiots running along the field.

Miyuki turned his head again, and this time his eye caught on to something. Did the bushes just rustle? There weren't many feral around the school, so the possibility of it having been a cat was quite unlikely. Miyuki stood up and made his way toward the bushes. "Oi, is somebody there?" Suddenly, a shadow jumped out of the bush and through the row of trees behind the field. "Oi!" Miyuki decided to give the person a chase. Maybe, just maybe that was the person who has been leaving notes in his shoe locker. He ran through the row of trees and up the slope, but the person had already blended in with all of the other students making their way to and fro on the upper path. Then, he spotted Sawamura. Suddenly forgetting about his chase, he snuck up on his kohai. He wrapped both arms around Sawamura's neck and blew gently on his neck. Puu.

"GYAAH!" Sawamura immediately ducked down, already used to Kuramochi-senpai's back attacks and turned around in a stance to face his opponent. "H-huh? Miyuki-senpai?"

Too late. Miyuki was already laughing his ass off on the ground, clutching onto his sides. "Ha-hahaha! You should have seen your face!"

Sawamura glared at the catcher. "Stupid Miyuki."

Miyuki stood back up and put an arm over the pitcher's shoulder as they made their way toward practice. "Hey, what were you doing over here anyway?" He decided to ask.

"H-huh? I was running an errand..for Kuramochi-senpai."

Miyuki's expression darkened a little. "An errand, huh?"

"What?" Sawamura caught on to his senpai's suddenly darkened mood and immediately tried to move away. An angry Miyuki was not a good sign. Not at all.

Later on that night, Miyuki tried to ask Kuramochi about the errand.

"Huh? Oh, it was nothing much. It was just a food-run to the snack bar."

"Tsk, next time, you should just get your own food."

Kuramochi paused to think. "Miyuki, don't tell me you.."

"What?"

"No, never mind."

He was going to say 'Don't tell me you like our cute Eijun-chan," but decided against it after seeing Miyuki's terrible mood. An angry Miyuki was a dangerous one after all.

* * *

It's been one week, and Miyuki was still getting the same daily notes, the same lollipops, and same the no-shows. He already has a small stash of lollipops stored in his jacket pocket now, ready to be eaten on the go.

He has to admit, though, these lollipops were starting to become a habit. Every day, he would purposely walk the long way by the bleachers after school and sit for a few minutes to finish up a lollipop before going to practice.

And every day, his curiosity grew. Just who in the world would think to leave him these notes and lollipops daily?

Ah, that was when he had an epiphany.

* * *

When the bell rang the next day to signal the end of school, he immediately ran to the usual place with lightning speed, bypassing his shoe locker, and jumped right into one of the bushes behind the field. He was prepared today. Putting his outdoor shoes inside of his bag instead, and putting them on before the bell even rang.

Of course, why didn't he think of this earlier? If the person always manages to leave a lollipop inside the black box before he arrives, then all he has to do is to get there before them. Sometimes, Miyuki Kazuya thought that maybe he was a genius and prides himself with it. And this was, of course, was one of those moments.

He waited; 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. He was just about to give up and just head to practice when he noticed a figure walking toward the bleachers.

The girl was around Ryousuke's height, with long flowing hair. She held a note in her hand.

Miyuki blinked. Of course, this was not what he was expecting. The notes that were in his shoe locker were always scribbled messily. He seriously would have never expected it to be a girl of her appearance.

Honestly, he was kind of disappointed. Miyuki was just about to walk out to confront the girl when he noticed another figure walking toward the bleachers.

"H-hey Narumi-san. I found this note in my shoe locker, telling me to s-someone here.. Was it you?"

"U-um yes it was. The thing is..I really like you, Mizuno-senpai!"

Miyuki sat awkwardly behind the bushes, trying not to make a sound. So it was a love confession after all, just not meant for him.

Miyuki recognized that name. That guy's shoe locker sat just three columns away from his, after all. Maybe it was just a mistake made by the girl. This whole week of hopefulness just came crashing down.

He chuckled to himself. Maybe this was karma for his shitty personality. After the new couple walked off, he stood up and walked away toward the baseball team changing rooms.

* * *

"Oi, is it just me or has Miyuki been in an even worst mood lately?"

"Tch, who knows? Just leave it alone. He'll get around."

After the incident, Miyuki was beyond irritated. He couldn't even bring himself to tease his kohai anymore. Not even when the perfect chance came up after a practice game when Sawamura was called up to bunt during a practice game.

He had already ignored his shoe locker for three days, not including the day of the incident and the weekend. There was no point in reminding himself of the one hopeful week he had in his love life, which was crushed to the point of no return in just a matter of minutes.

Today, he finally decided to return to using his shoe locker to put his shoes in. As per usual, he took off his indoor shoes and was just about to put it in the small compartment when he saw the several notes and lollipops. Raising his brow, he reached in to grab the letters.

First, he looked at the bottom one: "Sorry, can't come today. The lollipop will have to wait until tomor-" The letter seem to have been rushed, as the person didn't even have time to scribble the last parts of the word. That was from Friday.

Then, the second note: "There will be another lollipop waiting for you by the bleachers today~" Monday.

Third note: "Since you didn't come to claim it yesterday, I left this in your shoe locker. Hurry up and eat it before the ants do!" Tuesday.

Fourth note: "You stupid no-show Miyuki! I'm not going to keep transferring your lollipops for you!" Wednesday. The note made Miyuki quirk his brow a little. No show? Look who's talking.

And the final note: "Sorry if you're not interested anymore. This will be the last time. Meet you at the bleachers after school." Miyuki frowned a little at that and checked the time. Uh-oh, he had to stay after school to do some research at the library and too much time has already passed already.

Cursing inwardly to himself, Miyuki ran outside to toward the bleachers, forgetting to even change his shoes. Shit, the person was probably gone already. Why was he still doing this? He ran past the upper path, down the stairs, turned the corner and…

"Sawamura?"

"Sh-shit." The kohai glanced up at him and started to take off running. He jumped over the bushes, but tripped over his untied shoelaces when he was about to start running again.

Miyuki caught him just in time and pushed him against one of the nearby trees.

"Oi, so it was you this whole time? The notes and the lollipops—they were all your doing?"

Sawamura tilted his head down and looked toward the ground.

"S-so what if it was? Go ahead and laugh all you want, stupid Miyuki!" The pitcher flustered.

"But why?"

"Why? Because I like you, that's why! But lately, all you've been doing is ignor—umph!"

Miyuki shut him up effectively by connecting their lips together. He lifted one hand to the shorter boy's jaw and the other to gently caress his cheeks. And taking advantage of his kohai's open mouth, he pushed his tongue inside to deepen the kiss.

The best thing was, Sawamura actually kissed him back. Clutching onto his shirt for dear life and suddenly losing the strength to stand up by himself.

Miyuki lowered his left hand to support the other by his waist as they continued to kiss.

After what seemed like forever, they finally disconnected.

"I like you too, Bakamura."


	2. From a Certain Idiot's Point of View

**A/N: Sorry, I didn't realize that I didn't update this here yet. Feel free to visit my page on to find quicker updates. OH, and did you notice? This is my longest update yet! (even though it took equally as long to finish or possibly even longer)**

**As the title of the chapter suggests, this will be from Sawamura's point of view (laughter. I couldn't hold myself back from calling him that because Sawamura being an **_**idiot**_** is really what inspired me to write this chapter) and just a bit of Miyuki and Kuramochi's POV. Haha, I couldn't hold myself back from putting in additional scenes for this update because I don't think I will be writing another MiyuSawa fic for a while. (That is a maybe too. Geeh self-contradiction)**

**Please let me know how you feel about this update! And, I hope you will enjoy reading this!**

* * *

"Ha, caught you!"

"G-geh." A certain idiot pitcher froze on the spot, his hand holding his senpai's uneaten pudding cup.

"I'm not going to let you steal my pudding cup again, Sawamura-chan!"

Sawamura put down the dessert with a defeated look.

"Tch, why didn't you warn me, Kuramochi-senpai?"

But as he turned to look to his side, he saw that his senpai was currently laughing his ass off. "Gyahaha! That was just too funny! Nobody in their right mind would pass on such a wonderful chance!"

Then, the two upperclassmen glanced at each other with knowing looks before Kuramochi suddenly pounced on the unguarded pitcher and locked him to the ground with a pinning technique.

"Gah! What are you doing—let me go!" The pitcher struggled, but to no avail.

Masuko sat down criss-crossed before the two of them. "We will let you go, but only under one condition."

"Oh, and for your information. If you refuse, then we will have to add one more penalty. Gyahahaha!"

The freshman tried to struggle a bit more until he finally decided give in. He didn't want to be stuck there and end up starting a battle of endurance with Kuramochi—it could very much end up lasting for hours. Also, his senpais weren't so forgiving to end it with just a simple punishment, much less if there were _two_ of them.

"O-okay! I'll do whatever you say—just let me go!" He said with a defeated look.

* * *

And so, Sawamura had to read _shoujo manga_ for a week _whenever_ he could during his free time. His roommates had given him a full series of shoujo manga to finish reading within a week as his punishment. Yes, Sawamura was an idiot after all, so what could be worse than making him _read_ of all things? To top it off, it even has to be _shoujo manga_!

At first, Sawamura thought that reading shoujo manga would only be a waste of time. Having spent most of his childhood playing outside, he had always thought that staying inside to read was pointless. But as he continued on with the series, the story turned out to be unexpectedly interesting and even _educational_ for him. Nobody would have expected the freshman to get all emotional over the manga. Oh, how wrong they were.

The young pitcher was not-so-quietly tearing up and sniffing as the two characters in the story finally confessed to each other. But sadly, in the next volume, the boy had gotten into a car accident. He came out with only had a few scratches and a broken ankle, but during the crash, he hit his head and lost a part of his memories. The memories that suffered the most loss just happened to be those spent with the heroine, Ami-chan. Poor Ami-chan! Now it was up to her to step up and try to regain the lost feelings. But just as things were starting to get better, Ami-chan's friend, who had secretly been in love with Kenta (the main guy, obviously), _just_ had to show up. She tricked him into thinking that they were dating before he had gotten into the accident, and surprisingly, he believed her!

"NOOOOO!" Sawamura suddenly yelled, startling _both_ of his roommates.

Kuramochi woke up with a start and bumped his head as he sat awake, fists clenching. Veins seemingly popped up on his forehead when he yelled, "OI! Shut it, Sawamura!"

The freshman's face, however, was streamed with tears as he looked up at his senpai. "B-but Ami-chan will have to start over again. Why is Kenta-kun being such an idiot!?"

After his outburst, Sawamura was kicked out of the room. _Literally._ It didn't really bother him though—he still had six whole volumes to finish reading. He just couldn't wait to see how the story will turn out.

He stayed outside in the cold the whole night, reading the manga and at the same time, pondering about a certain catcher. He couldn't get the thoughts of _him_ out of his mind. Ami-chan was working hard to rebuild her and Kenta-kun's relationship and had been trying different things to grab her senpai's attention. Sawamura had thought that _maybe_ he could try the same tactics too, just to see how _he_ would react. Of course, not directly though—the teasing he would get if he was ever caught would be endless, seeing as how it was _Miyuki Kazuya_.

* * *

Sawamura stuck with the first tactic in the book: a note in the shoe locker. This way, he wouldn't have to confront Miyuki directly.

He stood right in front of the catcher's shoe locker, unsure of what to do. In the manga, Ami-chan seemed to be prepared, holding a note in her hand and quickly placing it on top of Kenta's shoes before she raced off at the speed of light.

Thinking back to the manga, Sawamura realized he didn't actually have a note! He was too busy preparing himself mentally for the operation to even consider actually _writing_ the note. Luckily, he still had a few minutes left. His teacher had asked him to run an errand to the office, so he had planned to run as fast as he could to finish what he was told to do, leave the note in the locker, and make his way back to class on time.

He ripped off a sheet of paper from the back of his notebook and tried to think of something to write. In the manga, Ami-chan had written a poem on the note for her senpai.

Sawamura shook his head. _Screw that_.

The freshman pitcher was certainly not a literature person, so writing a poem was out of the question.

He could stand there thinking for hours if he could, but Sawamura didn't have much time on his hand. His teacher would definitely think that he was cutting class if he didn't go back within a few minutes.

Sawamura flailed and hurriedly scribbled on the note: "_Meet me at the first baseball bleachers after school."_

Well, that wasn't what he had planned to do originally, but it wouldn't hurt to see how the catcher would respond to the note. The path to the bleachers was on the way to the practice field anyway so Sawamura could just walk by to see if the catcher would actually show up.

The pitcher read the note over once, but before he put it on top of the shoes, he realized that the note may have sounded just _a bit_ too demanding. He scribbled a tiny "_please_" at the bottom just in case.

'_Perfect!'_ The freshman thought as he gleamed and held the paper up with both hands, smiling as if the addition actually made _any_ difference.

He folded and placed the note inside the shoe locker and ran all the way back to class, feeling accomplished.

* * *

The bell finally rung and Sawamura raced off to the bleachers. His classmates looked at the pitcher weirdly as he ran off into the distance. They decided not to speak up about it though because it was _Sawamura_ after all. The first-year pitcher was always easily excitable, so maybe he was just anxious to get more baseball practice.

Sawamura carefully hid himself behind the bushes as he waited for the catcher to come. He waited for a few minutes until he spotted Miyuki walking toward the bleachers.

'_Holyshitholyshitholyshit_. _Now what?'_ Miyuki was just a few feet ahead!

Sawamura took in a deep breath and willed himself to calm down. It's not like he knew who left the note in the first place, right?

Time seemed to tick by quickly as he watched the catcher. He couldn't help but notice all the small details about the upperclassman: his nonchalant expression when he thought nobody was looking, the way he sat himself down on the bleachers, or the way he checked the time on his phone every once in a while.

'_Shit_.' Sawamura thought as he blushed to himself. Why couldn't he keep his eyes away?

Finally, he ripped his eyes away from the view to look at the time on his phone. '_Woah. It's already 4pm!?'_ If he didn't go to practice soon, he was going to be late!

Sawamura quietly slipped out from behind the bushes and crawled his way toward the upper path and ran all the way up the slope.

'_Phew_.' Good, he didn't get caught—was what the pitcher thought when suddenly, there were _arms_ slipping around his neck.

"Sa-wa-mu-ra~" An all-too-familiar voice whispered into his left ear.

The younger boy immediately stiffened, a shiver running down his spine as he recognized who it was. "Gyah! M-Miyuki, what are you doing here?"

'_Don't tell me he found out already!?'_

"Going to practice, obviously? And it's Miyuki-_senpai_, you idiot."

Sawamura sighed inwardly in relief, but he immediately snapped back after he processed what the catcher had said. "I'm not an idiot."

"Oh, really now?" Miyuki replied sarcastically and smirked.

They began walking toward the lockers with Miyuki's arms slung over his shoulders. Wait, arms? Shoulders?

"Oi, what are you two idiots doing? Hurry up and get changed already. Practice is about to start." Jun said as he walked out from the locker room.

But Sawamura was too distracted by the catcher's close proximity to even notice what the third-year had said.

Miyuki suddenly let go of him. "Come on, let's head to practice."

"O-osu!" The underclassman flustered and rushed behind the catcher, who was suddenly already several feet ahead of him.

But if he had paid attention closely, maybe he could have noticed the small smile that had graced the catcher's lips as they both prepared to go to practice…

* * *

Sawamura decided to leave another note the next morning, telling the catcher to meet at the same place.

_Huff. Huff. Huff._

Sawamura was doing his daily routine, running with a tire tucked on his waist.

After waiting for nearly an hour at the meeting place with nobody showing up, he finally decided to just head to practice. He felt a little disappointed. Maybe the catcher didn't care anymore after his no-show yesterday.

The dejected pitcher continued to run until practice started. He scanned the field for the second-year catcher but couldn't seem to find him. Sawamura was a little surprised. Of course, Miyuki showing up to practice late was nothing out of the ordinary, but could this mean that he had something else to do? Could it be that that was why he never showed up at the meeting place?

He was right. In the end, Miyuki showed up to practice fifteen minutes late and had to run extra laps around the field as a result of his tardiness. It turned out that he had classroom duties to attend to after school and also had to run an errand for his teacher. But a tardy was still a tardy and Miyuki _still_ had to run the laps.

That night, Sawamura did feel a little bad for the catcher. The freshman could understand how tired he must be. After a grueling evening of practice, Miyuki was stuck running errands by himself _all night_ for the upperclassmen (he knew because Kuramochi kept laughing about it). But thanks to that, all of the other second-years and the first-years were finally able to get a good night's rest.

Sawamura made up his mind that would do something for Miyuki in return for being the sacrifice that night. Despite being a mean senpai, Miyuki was actually pretty considerate of his teammates.

* * *

He was running a food errand during lunch the next day when the lollipops on the counter caught his eye. It reminded him that he still had to get something for the catcher.

Sawamura would have stayed for hours deciding on which flavor to get if he had to, but in the end, he just picked his favorite flavor for the catcher, hoping that he would like it just as much as he did.

After he put some thought into it, Sawamura had decided that the gift should be used to cheer the catcher up. He _did_ seem pretty out of it during practice that day.

That evening, he found an old watch box to put the lollipop and another note inside stating: "_Hope this makes you feel better._"

* * *

He saw Miyuki eating the lollipop with a smile the next morning. When he first saw Miyuki, he thought that he must have been dreaming, but even after he smacked himself awake and rubbed at his eyes furiously, the catcher was _still_ smiling with the lollipop between his teeth.

The freshman couldn't help but stare. Miyuki was _smiling_? Much less, Miyuki was smiling because of _his_ lollipop?

In the end, he decided that he must get more.

* * *

After school, Sawamura was asked by Kuramochi to go run a food errand. The pitcher immediately agreed to do it, having already planned to head there himself.

As he walked back from the store, Sawamura decided that he should not miss his chance to see whether or not Miyuki would show up at the meeting place. So, he took the long path around the field to pass by the bleachers.

As quietly as he could, Sawamura slowly crept his way down the slope toward his spot behind the bushes.

Miyuki seemed to be enjoying himself, relaxing with his legs splayed out on the seat in front of him while sucking on the lollipop that Sawamura had left the previous night. Sawamura couldn't help but smile a little at the sight.

But as careful as he was being, the pitcher still failed to remain silent when he accidentally stepped on a twig before him. '_SHIT!'_

He quickly darted down, praying to the saints that he was not seen and ran as quickly as his legs would carry him up the slope.

Sawamura was still catching his breath when he suddenly felt a warm breath on the back of his neck. "GYAAH!" The young pitcher let out an unnaturally high-pitched scream. He immediately ducked down and turned around to see _what_ it was that had scared him.

Sawamura straightened as he quickly recognized who it was. "H-huh? Miyuki-senpai?" He stood there, stunned.

Miyuki was already laughing his ass off on the ground, clutching onto his sides. "Ha-hahaha! You should have _seen_ your face!"

Still in a half-daze, Sawamura only managed a half-assed response. He said, "Stupid Miyuki," as he violently ignored the catcher and walked on.

After that, the catcher jogged up to him, putting his arm around Sawamura's shoulder. "Hahaha. I'm _sorry_, alright? Here, I'll help you out." He picked up half of the bags as they both headed toward practice.

"Hey, what were you doing over here anyway?" The catcher asked him.

Sawamura paused, "H-huh? I was running an errand..for Kuramochi-senpai." His mind raced back to when he was almost caught by the bleachers, but when he happened to glance up at the catcher's face, he noticed that Miyuki's expression had darkened a little. Miyuki asked, "An errand, huh?"

'Shit, did he actually see me earlier_?'_ Sawamura decided to act as innocent as he could and replied, "_What_?" with a blank face. But when he looked at the catcher's face again, he instinctively tried to move away. 'Why does he look so_ angry_?'

The rest of the walk toward practice was filled with awkward silence as they were both deep in thought.

* * *

Sawamura continued to leave the notes and lollipops for the catcher throughout the week, hoping that the gifts would help ease Miyuki's anger a little. That was _if_ he was really angry at him. Well, he surely hoped not. But still, he couldn't forget Miyuki's darkened expression during the incident a few days ago when he ran the food errand for Kuramochi.

Sawamura hadn't really seen the second-year catcher lately, what with all the training he had to do with Chris-senpai during afternoon practice. The game season was drawing closer and closer, but he still hadn't mastered the control of his pitches.

On Thursday though, Sawamura suddenly had a lot of duties to attend to after school, which mostly consisted of clean-up duty and running errands for teachers. And just when he thought he was finished, he bumped into the librarian on his way outside and was asked to substitute for the library monitor who was sick that day. Feeling a little bad for the teacher, Sawamura could not refuse.

When he was done, the freshman was already late for practice, and knowing that he would have to skip going to the bleachers that day, he hurriedly scribbled a note for the catcher. "_Sorry, can't come today. The lollipop will have to wait until tomor-" _He stopped in the middle and stuck the paper in the locker. 'Oops! I'm going to be scolded even more if I don't hurry!'

* * *

**Miyuki POV**

After the practice match on Saturday, the baseball team decided to send Sawamura off to run a food errand since he was the _least_ tired out of the freshmen trio in the first string. He was taken off the field early on in the game in order to test the strength of the other pitchers and after he was told to bunt during his at-bat to help Furuya score a run.

Seeing as how Sawamura was the only one being bullied, Miyuki decided to help the pitcher out with the errand. He _did_ have a soft spot for the freshman after all. In addition to that, spending time with Sawamura tended to lift his spirits whenever he was feeling down, which was perfectly the case after the bleacher incident on Thursday.

Their teammates, mostly Kuramochi, stared at the two of them knowingly as they walked toward the store.

**Sawamura POV**

When they were at the store, Sawamura caught the catcher staring at a specific brand of lollipops. It was the same brand he always bought for Miyuki.

'Stupid Miyuki, if you continue to stare like that then I won't be able to get them for you.'

Luckily, something else had caught the catcher's attention and Sawamura quickly purchased a whole set of the lollipops without being noticed.

"So, what are you going to get?"

"H-huh?" He had just finished hiding the lollipops in one of the bags.

"I meant the snacks. What are you going to get for yourself?" The catcher looked at him questioningly.

"O-oh! Umm.." Sawamura glanced around before he took a chocolate bar on his right side. "This! I'll get this!"

Miyuki smirked as he watched the flustered pitcher. It was funny when he knew how the underclassman didn't even _like_ that brand of chocolate. "Ahh, let's go then."

They finished buying all of their items and headed back to the indoor practice area where the first string members were all still practicing even after the practice match.

* * *

On Monday, Sawamura was practically overflowing with happiness. He could still remember when Miyuki ended up sharing his pudding with him after their food errand on Saturday. Apparently, Miyuki _accidentally_ bought the wrong pudding cup and asked if he could trade it off with Sawamura's chocolate bar.

_Sawamura's eyes literally sparkled as he nodded vigorously at the catcher. It was his favorite pudding after all. _

"_Heh, you could at least say 'thank you'" Miyuki chuckled as he watched the freshman happily dig into the pudding cup._

"_O-oh. Thanks, I guess." Sawamura said in reply, a tiny blush gracing his soft features._

_Miyuki stiffened, eyes widening for a moment as he noticed Sawamura's sudden change in expression. _

"_Heh, you have pudding on your face, you idiot." He leaned in closer to the freshman and wiped the spot off his face with his index finger, putting it in his mouth to taste-test it. _

"_Bleh, too sweet." Miyuki then proceeded to ruffle the pitcher's hair, "But I'm glad you like it."_

The freshman was still staring ahead dreamily as he reminisced what had happened just two afternoons ago. After he obtained a pudding cup from Miyuki, he was given three more of the same pudding cup by his teammates afterward. Indeed, it was a wonderfully joyous day for the freshman.

He snapped back to reality when he realized that he was still standing in front of the catcher's shoe locker. Realizing that he didn't have all day to stand around thinking about pudding cups, he hurriedly scribbled the note, "_There will be another lollipop waiting for you by the bleachers today~_" before he headed off to the bleachers.

Little did he know, Miyuki had already made it a point to ignore the shoe locker. The incident on Thursday had done too much damage to the upperclassman's pride and Miyuki was beyond irritated by that point. His temper may or may not have worsened when he noticed that he was not the only to treat Sawamura to a pudding cup on Saturday. It was highly probable that it did though.

That night, Sawamura was doing some light jogging around the field when he noticed that his watch box was left in the exact same spot he always left it—at the very edge of the second row bleachers. That was strange.

He decided to go take a look and was surprised to find that the lollipop was still there.

'Oh well, maybe he was just busy.' But Sawamura could not shake off the slight uneasiness that he felt. He had become so accustomed to the ordeal of having to leave the notes and lollipops every day that it never occurred to him that Miyuki would suddenly stop going to the meeting place _again_.

His uneasiness only grew the next day when he noticed that his note was still in the shoe locker and the new lollipop that he left at the bleachers was still unfounded by the catcher.

And so, Sawamura did only what he could think to do at that point in his very slight depression. He referred back to the shoujo manga.

The new volume just recently came out and he was a little excited to read it. But to his disappointment, the heroine had begun to have her own doubts about the possibility of ever restoring Kenta's memories. The volume then ended after she had a talk with Tarou-kun, a classmate who secretly had a crush on her, and decided to face her own doubts with renewed determination.

Ah, that's just what he needed! Sawamura really needed someone to talk to!

Unfortunately, that day Haruichi had to meet up with with his brother to practice batting together and he knew that asking Furuya would be out of the question. That guy only ever talked about baseball after all. And somehow, everyone else that he encountered had something else to do. Wednesday nights are really the worst.

The freshman sighed in disappointment and headed back his room. He didn't even notice the second-year shortstop until he was suddenly pinned on the ground with the dangerous sleeper choke.

"You sure have guts huh, Sawamura—ignoring your senpai!"  
Sawamura finally responded, "Geh! I'm sorry, senpai! Please let me go!"

**Kuramochi POV**

Kuramochi quirked his brow at the freshman's response. Sawamura had never once responded that way to his attacks—something was very off about the way the pitcher acted. Now that he thought about it, he noticed that something was off about _Miyuki_ lately as well. Kuramochi frowned at the thought.

"Hey Sawamura, did something happen with Miyuki?" He immediately felt the smaller body stiffen. Ha, he was right.

"H-how did you know? _Owowow_" Realizing that he was still pinning down the freshman, Kuramochi finally let go and settled down next to Sawamura.

Kuramochi smirked, "Could the two of you be any more obvious?"

Sawamura frowned at this. "What do you mean?"

The upperclassman inwardly facepalmed at him. 'How much more of an _idiot_ can this idiot be?'

"Shut up and just answer my question." He said to the freshman sternly (or well, as stern as he could manage to sound in the situation).

Sawamura lowered his head, "Yes."

At that moment, everything suddenly clicked for Kuramochi: the way those two acted around each other when they thought nobody was looking, and then the way _both_ of them suddenly seemed to be in fouler moods. Of course, he knew that their pitcher and catcher certainly _liked_ each other, but neither of them wanted to admit to their feelings!

Kuramochi let his match-making and senpai powers go to work. He decided that once the two of them actually get together (due to yours truly), he would make sure that he would get to tease the both of them endlessly and bribe Miyuki into giving him his DVD collection. Yes, it was all for the sake of the DVD's (or so he tried to tell himself).

"Well, whatever you're doing, _freshman_, you must be doing it wrong. If you want him to actually _notice_ your feelings, then you better try harder!"

And with that said, Kuramochi left the freshman to do some thinking of his own. He picked up his gaming consoles and headed toward Miyuki's room to see what the upperclassmen were up to.

* * *

**Sawamura POV**

After the brief talk with Kuramochi that night, Sawamura realized that his roommate was right—he wasn't going to get anywhere if he just continued to wallow in self-doubt. He really should just man up and face the catcher head-on!

That morning, he decided that he was going to bet everything into the last note, which by the way stated: "_Sorry if you're not interested anymore. This will be the last time. Meet you at the bleachers after school._"

And so, with a determined look, Sawamura left _all_ of the remaining lollipops in the shoe locker (since it was the last time he was going to be leaving the notes and the gifts anyway), and stormed off determinedly toward homeroom.

* * *

**Miyuki/Sawamura POV**

Half of his determination was already gone by the time he made it to the bleachers. And with every minute that ticked by, which was actually a lot, his ego deflated and his impatience only grew.

Sawamura was once again pacing back and forth behind the bleachers when he suddenly heard his name being called.

"Sawamura?"

'_Holy shit!_' His first instinct was to run. And he did—that was until he tripped on his own goddamned shoelaces.

Sawamura was falling headfirst and he braced himself for the pain, but it never came. Instead, he felt his _back_ hit the tree behind him.

'Huh?'

Miyuki was seething by then and scolded, "Oi, so it was you this whole time? The notes and the lollipops—they were all _your_ doing?"

Sawamura tilted his head toward the ground. 'Goddammit me! Man up and just _tell_ him already!' But the words that came out of his mouth actually contradicted with what he was thinking.

"S-so what if it was? Go ahead and laugh all you want, stupid Miyuki!" The pitcher flustered.

Miyuki paused at this, "But why?"

'_Why?_ What the fuck?After all that happened, he's seriously asking me_ why?' _Sawamura snapped.

"Why? Because I like you, that's why! But lately, all you've been doing is ignor—umph!"

Then, he felt soft lips on his and Sawamura suddenly felt as if he was flying. The kiss was anything but gentle, _especially_ when Miyuki's tongue slipped inside his mouth. It was like a kiss he never felt before (mostly because he never really did), and Sawamura automatically reciprocated, desperately trying to copy what Miyuki was doing to him just to show how _much_ he wanted this—how much he _needed_ this.

He was clinging onto Miyuki's shirt for dear life as he felt his own knees starting to get weak. Miyuki quickly reached down to keep him up by lowering his arm to support Sawamura by his waist and pulled him impossibly closer, as if their distance would make up for all those weeks—all those _months_ of disregarded feelings.

They finally broke free when they lost their breath and Sawamura was panting heavily when Miyuki told him, "I like you too, Bakamura."

Sawamura blushed as he looked to the ground, not knowing where _else_ to look. _Why _does the floor have to look so interesting? He swore that he would have tried counting the number of grass blades under his feet if it weren't for the hand, the amazingly _warm_ hand that guided his chin upward, forcing him to look the catcher in the eyes.

They continued to stare at each other intently. Well yeah, and that was it—they just stared. For a long time.

'What's going on?' …ah.

Sawamura realized that he was actually supposed to _say_ something, because in the few months that he had known him, Sawamura _knew_ that Miyuki Kazuya was just not the type of guy who would know what to say in an intimate situation. Seriously not. And honestly, he wouldn't have known either if it weren't for the _shoujo manga_ that he had originally been forced to read.

'Now what would Ami-chan say or do in _this_ situation?' His mind raced.

But before he was able to reach a conclusion, he once again felt soft lips on his and his mind blanked out. '_Screw you_, Miyuki!' He was finally getting there!

This time, however, the kiss was gentle. The tenderness he felt from his counterpart was _almost_ painfully sweet and before Sawamura knew it, the words flowed out from his own mouth.

"D-do you want to go out?" And Sawamura immediately added, "I mean—to watch a baseball game! Go out with me to watch a baseball game!"

Miyuki stiffened and put both of his hands on Sawamura's shoulders, putting a little distance between them so that he could get a better look at his face. Then, he started chuckling, and the chuckling grew into laughter. He laughed at the comment shamelessly.

Sawamura snapped for the second time that day and grabbed Miyuki by the front of his shirt. "What's so funny!?"

Miyuki lifted his arms in defeat as his laughter slowly died down and until the pitcher finally loosened his grip. He held Sawamura by the back of his head and gently bumped their foreheads together. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this either." He paused yet again, "Sawamura, do you want to be my _partner?"_

Despite being usually claimed as an _idiot_, Sawamura at least understood _that_ and replied, "Okay.."

Miyuki grinned happily at this, but then he added, "But well..I guess we can go out to watch a baseball game too!" And he laughed.

Unsurprisingly, Miyuki didn't get a very good response from that. But then again, he wouldn't have said it either if he hadn't known that Sawamura was still _Sawamura_, and baseball idiots tend to forgive easily when they're in love. And also add on the fact that he would have _a lot_ of time in the future to make it up to him.

_**The End.**_

* * *

_Omake_

Kuramochi looked at the two baseball idiots bantering back and forth at the table and wondered why he even bothered with the match-making. They were acting so _incredibly_ normal that there wasn't really anything to tease about! Really, he would have expected at least _some_ awkwardness between them as couples _usually_ do when they first get together. Right, but then again, who said the two of them were normal?

But sure enough, Miyuki knocked on his door on Saturday morning to leave him one of his DVD collections with a short 'Thanks' before he went off to do his usual business.

Honestly, he was kind of jealous of them two—always doing their own thing like it was nobody's business. But this was the sort of thing he secretly wished for.

Maybe instead of being the match-maker of the team, it was time for _him_ to put his game cap on. His mind immediately trailed off to his so-called partner as he wondered what kind of tactics he should use..

* * *

**A/N: I can only hope that this made sense to you all. I'm a bit concerned about all the mistakes I have certainly made, so feel free to point them out for me! Thank you for reading, and please leave a review!**


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